The Beginning of Something Really Excellent
by CherryBerry12
Summary: Temari thinks she's finally had enough when she sighs and says, "Are you just gonna stand there all day without saying anything?" SakuTema, post-Sasuke Retrieval Arc.


A/N: THE END OF RAREPAIR BINGO! im so exhausted right now... thanks to everyone who comments and faves!

Temari thinks she's finally had enough when she sighs and says, "Are you just gonna stand there all day without saying anything?"

The pink-haired girl startles and turns to her, eyes wide. She's supposed to be a shinobi but right now she looks more like a lost child, looking for someone to lead her around, to take her by the hand and say, _there's nothing to worry about. Everything will be okay._

Everything won't be okay, and that's the point: they're shinobi, and this is a hospital ward. Anyone who couldn't handle bad news had no business hanging around here for days on end, but no one seems to have told the girl that.

The girl - Sakura, Temari vaguely remembers from the chunin exams, having seen her get tossed around like it was nothing by Gaara - tucks a greasy strand of hair behind her ear. Years of being the oldest, the sibling responsible for keeping Kankuro safe, if not Gaara, has made it easy for Temari to judge a person with deadly accuracy, and she's had days to watch Sakura. Everything about her is soft: her small, graceful hands, the porcelain-doll cheeks that wouldn't last even the mildest windstorm in Suna. The bright-white teeth that worry at her lower lip without ever actually biting down or drawing blood.

Even as a small child, Temari had learned how to hide such obvious vulnerabilities; it was a way to survive, and survival was never as easy in Suna as it apparently is in Konoha.

Temari leans back on the hospital bench and closes her eyes, her fan taking up the entirety of the space next to her, daring anyone to try to complain about it. "You're like a ghost, here all day haunting the emergency room." Temari opens one eye and looks Sakura up again, sees dark bruises under her eyes in painful contrast with her pale face, one particularly shiny and straight strand of strawberry hair she's obviously been fussing with while she paces the corridors. "Let me try my hand at exorcising you."

Sakura takes a nervous step back, and Temari wonders if she should have made her comment a little less threatening. What kind of shinobi couldn't take a mild threat?

"Neji was hurt going after Sasuke," Sakura eventually says, hugging her arms to her. "And so was Choji. And Naruto…"

And Temari is a former enemy, and Sakura doesn't hesitate to confide in her. Konoha shinobi really were something else.

Temari shrugs. "So why are you out here, then?"

"Sasuke is my friend." Her cheeks redden, and then her face falls, the fight sucked out of her as fast as it got there. "They were looking for him because I couldn't stop him, and they all got hurt. I…" She swallows. "Sasuke left me behind here."

"Yeah? And why didn't you go after him?" Temari waves her hand, "It isn't as if they didn't need the extra support anyway."

Sakura frowns, and there's just enough baby fat left in her cheeks to make it look like a pout. "It's not that simple. If I'd have known—"

Temari interrupts, and Sakura stands there and listens to her. "In Suna, it's kill or be killed. In the desert, you can't survive on _ifs_ and _maybes_. You knew they were going after him, didn't you? You Konoha shinobi can't keep anything to yourselves. You _let_ yourself get left behind twice, girlie, and that's a conservative estimate."

"It's—"

"And I know it's nothing like that in Konoha, huh? You're softer here. You don't have to be real shinobi." Temari inclines her head to the swinging doors of the emergency room, the blinking red light hanging above them. "I'm starting to wonder if that's changed your mind yet." Temari thinks for a moment, and then adds, "What are you gonna do if one of them dies? Do you really think you could handle that?"

The color drains from Sakura's face, but she's at least got enough of a spine that she sets her jaw and swallows the feeling. "I can handle just as much as you can. I'm not weak."

"Do you really think so? Because I've been—"

"I know what I'm _doing_," Sakura grits out, green eyes hardening, her little ladylike fingers tightening into a fist. "I don't appreciate you talking to me like I don't."

Well. That's interesting.

Sakura looks soft; Temari wasn't wrong about that.

Temari is, however, a child of the desert, and just as quick as she's learned to judge people, she's learned appearances aren't everything, that what appears from afar to be a safe oasis is almost guaranteed to be anything but.

Sakura _looks_ soft, but Temari wonders if there isn't more to her than that.

"Take it from someone will a little more experience: don't get stronger just for the Uchiha kid's sake. Or because of Naruto. Don't let a man be your goal because you'll just never be satisfied." Temari taps the edge of her fan, wondering if Sakura has ever really been a part of the weird competitions between her two male teammates, or if she's just been set dressing. A prize, someone to look on and witness their achievements. "Get stronger for yourself, because you're tired of being weak. Tired of men coming to save you, tired of men leaving you behind, and tired of men doing your job for you and doing it wrong. I think you'll find you're a lot more satisfied when you can do the job yourself, and do it right."

Sakura's glare cools, but all the softness in her face is gone. "I'm just as much of a kunoichi as you are," she snaps. "I don't need to be told what to do."

"I don't think you do." Temari rises from her the bench and grabs her fan, giving Sakura a wave as she walks away.

Her mission, after all, ended several days ago when she dragged Shikamaru back to the village on her back. This? This is her indulging in a curiosity. Helping out a new ally.

And, maybe, just having the tiniest bit of fun.

Temari calls over her shoulder, "When you do finally get stronger, however long that takes, come find me. I wanna see how tough you really are."

"Don't you walk away yet! I'm not done with you!" Temari pauses and turns to see Sakura has her fist pressed against the hospital wall, her eyebrows knit tight. It isn't much, but from across the hall Temari can tell the force of the hit was just hard enough to leave the tiniest of cracks in the stone. "I'm going to tell you three things, so you better listen up!" Sakura holds her hand out, counting each one off on her fingers. "First, Naruto and Neji and Choji are gonna walk out of this building and they're all going to be _fine_. Second, I will never get left behind on a mission again. And third, the next time we meet? You're gonna lose, and then you'll have no choice but to admit I'm every bit as good as you are and _better_, you got that?"

Temari raises an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, I've got it." She smirks. "I heard you loud and clear."


End file.
